


I'll Take Care of You Tonight

by Patchwork_Author



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 19:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7586731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Patchwork_Author/pseuds/Patchwork_Author
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alphonso Mackenzie has always loved Bobbi Morse. For as long as he's known her. And as much as they've come in and out of each other's lives, there's something about her walking away this time that feels final. If he's going to move on, he's going to need some time alone. </p>
<p>He does not expect that alone time to start with finding Bobbi in his apartment.</p>
<p>A pretty AU drabble looking at Mack and Bobbi's history from Mack's POV, Bobbi's flight from S.H.I.E.LD. and how he deals with it all. And, most importantly, a reunion. </p>
<p>Written speculatively pre-parting shot so again pretty AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Take Care of You Tonight

**Author's Note:**

> So this was written way back when we knew Hunter and Bobbi were leaving but before 'Parting Shot' aired, so the details of their absence turned out differently on the show than in the fic, but I'd had this on my computer for months and I really like it so I thought I'd post.

He’s loved her for years. Since before Dubai, before Hunter. But before Hunter, Bobbi needed a friend, not a lover, and Mack cared more about their friendship than anything else. And once Hunter was introduced there was, well, Hunter.

It takes two people to decide to be in a relationship. Mack knew being her friends was as valuable as being in a relationship with her. That’s all that mattered to him.

There’s one night, after the divorce is finalized, where he takes her out for drinks, and they get too close, they open up too much (though they’ve always been honest with each other. And when she had to skirt around something, he never held it against her. They’re spies, dammit). And Bobbi leans forward to kiss him, whines – actually whines – when he places a hand on her shoulder, keeping her at bay.

He wants to let her make this move, so badly, but they’re drunk and she’s hurting and he doesn’t want it like this.

It takes everything he has but he pushes her hair out of her face. “Barbara, no. You don’t really want this,” he says.

\--

She moves on from Hunter for a while, becomes her own again and damn she is a force of nature. She never fully lets go of Hunter, though. Which is fine, because Hunter sure as hell doesn’t move on from her.

Mack shouldn’t be surprised when they collide towards each other like magnets once she’s on Coulson’s base, but there is part of him that thought maybe, maybe they’d stopped for real.

Mack’s an adult. He doesn’t do jealousy. So he makes sure to check himself, makes sure to try and dial back on the flirtation he and Bobbi always seem to have in their friendship. It doesn’t go away completely, but it fades.

When the two S.H.I.E.L.D’s collide, and Hunter is AWOL, Bobbi seems to be torn in a thousand directions, looking for solid ground.

When she comes to him for advice, for solace, for sparring, he knows it’s because what they’ve always done. Drift together when times get rough. They stood together when it felt like the entire world was against them. It feels that way now – their friends hate them – and they drift once more.

\--

For a while, everything is alright. Well, as alright as it can be. She’s recovering from what Ward did to her (if it was his fight, he’d have taken his axe to him a while ago, but it’s not. It’s no one’s fight but Bobbi’s, if she wants it), and he’s working with a whole new world of Inhumans, and she and Hunter are still doing their dance, but for once, everything seems stable, in some weird sense of the word.

She’s recovering. She and Hunter, well, they’re not the worst they’ve been. As for Mack, well, he’s good at his job, Daisy is a good partner, and he’s starting to feel like a S.H.I.E.L.D agent again. Again, stable. As much as it can be for a S.H.I.E.L.D agent.

And then. Malick. Russia. Conspiracy. A bounty on Hunter and Bobbi’s heads. They make it to the base under a hail of gunfire, Bobbi’s lip bleeding, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Bobbi-” he says, walking towards her.

“We have to go. Someone has it in for us. We need to lay low for a while,” she says.

It reminds him of the old days. But still-“Lay low here.”

She smiles weakly. “We can’t.”

He hands her two guns. She has her batons. Hunter has picked out a car and calls out her name.

“Send a sign, if you can,” he says. She nods, leaning up to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. Mack closes his eyes, feels her hands leave his, and then she’s gone, and there are people shouting, demanding to know where she is.

He’d forgotten about this part of spy life. The part where he has no idea if he’ll ever again.

She’s perfectly capable, he knows she can take care of herself. But she has no reason to return, at the end of the day. She’s capable, and she has Hunter. She could do whatever she pleased.

\--

He asks for a week away from base when it’s been almost a year. There’s something in Coulson’s face – pity, maybe. Or sympathy – and he agrees. It’s the first time he’s been off base for more than a few days since joining Coulson’s team.

It’s not that he’s scared. It’s not that he’s sad, or worried. It’s that he’s lonely. Not completely, because he loves his team, but Bobbi has always been his person, and he’s always been hers. And she’s gone.

Mack’s a little resigned, too, to the fact that he’ll likely never see her again. Not more than a glimpse or a smile, anyway. That guts him more than he cares to admit because he should’ve been damn well prepared for it but somehow tricked himself into thinking that maybe, just maybe, the spy life wouldn’t snatch up his personal life.

He just needs this week off to feel his loneliness, instead of feeling like something’s missing when he’s surrounded by teammates and friends. It’s been a year of trying not to think about it, it’s time to grow up, face the music, and try and sort through his feelings.

He was always the rational one.

He opens the door to his apartment, which he really hasn’t seen in ages, and it takes him two seconds to realize someone’s there.

It takes him about another millisecond to realize it’s –

“Barbara,” he breathes, and she launches herself at him right as he steps towards her. She fits into his arms and he half doesn’t want to let her go. She lets out a big breath and he can feel it in her whole body. She’s been running for a whole year, and she’s exhausted. “Are you okay?”

She nods. “Yeah. We did it, Mack. We cleared our names. Thank the fucking lord, right?” she smiles. She’s a little banged up, but nothing too bad. “Do they all hate me for disappearing on them again?”

Mack shakes his head. “No. No, not at all. Where’s Hunter?”

Bobbi pulls away, wincing, and he prepares for the worst. “We split a few months back.”

“What?”

She sighs, tilting her head. “It’s really hard to face the entire world when you don’t trust the person you’re running with. And sure, we trusted each other when we had a great team with us, and we weren’t under this kind of pressure, but when it was just us?” she says, shaking her head. “You learn really fast the faults in your relationship when you’re standing back to back under the threat of gunfire and you’d rather run than trust your life with them. Neither of us could get over that.”

It has been a long time coming, but it came in the worst way.

“Well, I’m glad he’s alive,” Mack says.

“Me too. God, me too.”

They still haven’t fully separated. “You think you’re gonna come back to S.H.I.E.L.D?”

Bobbi nods. “Yeah. I might want a break, first.”

“I’m on a week’s break from work right now.”

“You? Taking a break? That’s new,” she jokes, and it’s good to see her sense of humor hasn’t been killed.

He shrugs. “Needed to get away. Had some stuff to work out.” Bobbi cocks her head, asking silently and he sighs. “I haven’t seen you in a year. I didn’t really let myself think about it. It was time. But this, this is much better than thinking.”

She doesn’t smile, just lets her fingers fall on his shoulders, looks thoughtful. “A year and two days, but close enough.”

“Like I said, didn’t let myself think about it. I had to focus.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” she says, and his eyes fall to a cut on the apple of her cheek. “I thought about it. When I could. I knew I was going to miss you, and everybody,” she adds the last part hurriedly, “but I severely underestimated how much.”

“Yeah?” he asks. Bobbi nods. “I missed you too. Missed my partner in crime.”

“I need to settle back in. I feel…bogged down. Like I’m still on the run,” she says, and yeah, he gets that. On the run for a year? He’d be fucked up.

“What do you need?”

She brings their mouths together, and Mack lets her, for a minute, before pulling away. “Barbara. I understand if you need this, I do, but let me be the voice of reason one more time-”

She shakes her head, and he can see the cracks in the armor. She’s not crying – she won’t cry, he knows that – but there’s a vulnerability in her eyes. “I don’t need this. Mack, I need you,” she says, and he knows those aren’t easy words for her to say. “Please.”

He knows this is hard for her so he just swallows his damn rationale and gives in to his feelings alone. A method that would ruin him as an agent but probably would be better for him to do from time to time as a human.

Their kisses are messy, but not frenzied, and she mumbles into his mouth a couple times as she guides him to the bedroom.

Once there, Mack takes his time, no matter how many times Bobbi tries to speed them up. He’s going to take care of her. If she’ll allow him. Which she does, once she realizes his intent. It’s not about him, tonight. It’s about her.

Friends, lovers, whatever, he will always be a safe place for her to land. She may not need that kind of safety all the time, but he’s happy to be there when she does. The same way she acts as a safety net for him. When she’s not running around trying not to get shot.

They show each other that with their bodies for once, pressed up against each other, warm and soft and slick with sweat. He’s careful around her injuries, but lets his fingertips pad around them, gliding over her skin – bruised and unbruised, he treats each inch with the same gentleness and respect.

Bobbi arches up against him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Mack.”

“Sorry,” he says, skimming his lips across her collarbone. “If this is the one night I get I want to take my time,” he admits, feeling her shiver and so he pulls the covers up around them.

She looks up at him, and that vulnerability is back, like she never expected him to say that. She’s feeling so much, so deeply and damn if it isn’t beautiful. Her hands find his face, holding him still so she can look at him, even as his fingers work their way lower and lower.

“Take all the time you need,” she says, and in typical Bobbi fashion, most of her thoughts and meaning go unsaid. He trails his kisses down her chest to her abdomen but he still hears her say, “I want something solid. Not a rollercoaster, not a one-night stand.”

He smiles against her skin in spite of himself.

This feels good. All good.


End file.
